On April 22, Earth Day, Apple, the world's top smartphone maker, also released documents to show Apple's actions and achievements on environmental issues.
One of these achievements has attracted much attention and controversy. Apple said it has mined an estimated 550,000 tons less copper, tin and zinc since the iPhone 12's packaging no longer comes with power adapters. It is reported that the power adapter needs to use a lot of plastic, copper, tin and zinc and other materials, and the cancellation of the power adapter has helped Apple avoid more than 2 million tons of carbon emissions, which is equivalent to shutting down nearly 500,000 cars for a year.
Apple said that no longer comes with a power adapter, which is a bold change for Apple and a very necessary move for the planet.
Apple mobile phone, do not send chargers, its purpose is for environmental protection, or borrow environmental protection, disguised to squeeze consumers? This is a very controversial topic.
Apple's "environmental behavior" over the years
Over the years, Apple has really done a lot of things for "environmental protection".
In 2020, in the name of "helping the earth reduce the burden and advocate environmental protection", Apple released the iPhone 12 series to cancel the charger and headphones.
According to reports, some netizens recently said that they received a consumer opinion survey sent from Apple, this time to find out whether iPhone 12 Pro Max users have used the SIM card ejection card pin, iPhone welcome guide, USB to lightning cable, Apple stickers and other accessories included in the box.
The iPhone 13's packaging materials have been redesigned to eliminate plastic outer packaging, reducing the amount of plastic used by 600 tons, allowing Apple to achieve its goal of completely eliminating plastic packaging by 2025 faster.
In addition, from the feedback of the first batch of consumers, the outer packaging of the iPhone 13 series has indeed canceled the plastic film, and the design of the upper and lower seals is adopted, which is more convenient to open the box.
Looking back now, Apple canceled the charger and headphone behavior in the iPhone 12 series, which is to test the acceptance of consumers, if consumers react strongly to cancel chargers and headphones, then Apple will not take such a big risk to hurt consumers. Then to the questionnaire collection of the iPhone12 pro max, it may provide data support for the subsequent "environmental behavior", and it is also a tentative behavior.
The "environmental protection behavior" of the iPhone 13 is still relatively slight, and the packaging has been changed, but it can be seen that Apple is becoming more and more bold and more and more unrestrained in terms of accessories and accessory materials.
According to the trend of Apple canceling accessories, Apple's cancellation of all accessories is probably a foregone conclusion, but I don't know how many more years. However, after all, the previous rumors of canceling chargers and headphones have also become a reality, and recently began to test that the new Apple mobile phone will no longer give away data cables, and the card pin will be canceled. If this is really the case in the future, in the future, Apple mobile phones, I am afraid that they will really be sold in the form of bare metal.
After Apple's "environmental protection", make more money
For Apple, removing accessories can boost the phone's profits. Why? Because Apple does not have to provide kit accessories in the packaged iPhone, to apple original accessories, must be purchased separately. The point is that Apple phones don't cut prices because of the cancellation of accessories.
In this way, the original price, or even a higher price of the iPhone, because of the cancellation of accessories, reduce the cost, the profit of each iPhone sold will become higher, and the user must also buy the cancelled accessories separately, which will bring Apple another income and profit.
Some media have calculated that after Apple canceled the charger and headphones, it saved at least $6.5 billion in costs per year, equivalent to 41.6 billion yuan, and the cost saved is equivalent to the profits made by Apple, because Apple's mobile phones will not reduce prices because of the cancellation of accessories.
More critically, the co-operation effect of Apple's cancellation of chargers and headphones is also obvious, after upgrading the new iPhone to 20W fast charging, the Apple charger priced at 149 yuan has contributed a lot of revenue to Apple.
Then there is the cancellation of headphones has also greatly stimulated consumers to buy AirPods series headphones, some analysts believe that in 2022, AirPods will bring apple more than 20 billion US dollars in revenue, and annual shipments are expected to exceed 100 million.
In addition, taking the data line as an example, a data line apple official website is priced at 145 yuan, and the hardware cost is about 50 yuan. After the data cable is no longer given away, the cost of mobile phone packaging will be reduced, and the transportation cost of the data line will be gone. Simply canceling the data line, Apple can save more than 60 yuan in costs. Apple's annual sales of mobile phones are more than 100 million units, according to 100 million units, after the cancellation of the data line can save 6 billion yuan of expenditure per year. Counting the costs of card needles, paper instructions and warranty cards, this can save about 1.5 billion yuan.
According to the data of the analyst agency, Apple's mobile phone shipments in 2020 are about 120 million. In this way, after Apple cancels all accessories, the annual profit will increase by at least 15 billion yuan, which is equivalent to the profit of Xiaomi Group for one year. It is not difficult to see that crudely emasculated all mobile phone accessories and easily increased profits of more than 10 billion yuan per year, Apple's trick is indeed clever.
This is just to cancel the increased profits of accessories, after the cancellation of accessories, users will still consume accessories, most users may still choose Apple's accessories, so with the sales of accessories, Apple will make money again, this profit, absolutely more than 10 billion.
Therefore, after Apple cancels accessories, the annual profit is definitely at least tens of billions of profit growth, and the cost of input is smaller, and the profit generated is more.
It is no wonder that seeing such a large profit, other manufacturers will also choose to follow. Xiaomi and Samsung later tried to choose to cancel the accessory. The Xiaomi Mi 11 just launched an eco-friendly version that doesn't give away chargers, and the Samsung S21 emulates Apple, eliminating chargers and headphones.
Is Apple Really Eco-Friendly, or Is It Really Squeezed?
Recently, in Brazil, a judge ruled that Apple must compensate a Brazilian customer who recently purchased an iPhone because the device did not contain a charger in the box, which violated Brazilian consumer law.
The compensation, nearly $1,075, is about 7,000 yuan. Because Apple canceled the charger, and the charging cable provided by the iPhone, it is impossible to use with other charging heads, so Brazilian consumers have to buy Apple's charger. Apple is reducing allocations in the name of environmental protection, which is essentially a violation of consumer rights and interests, and is squeezing consumers by virtue of its own products and market monopoly position.
Only 7,000 yuan, compared with Apple's profits due to the reduction of tens of billions, compared to a dime, if every iPhone consumer on the Brazilian team has filed a lawsuit against Apple, and the Brazilian government has also punished Apple, then Apple should have to make changes.
Originally, users spent the same money, and now buy fewer products, but because Apple is the most popular high-end smart phone in the world, many users have to accept Apple's practice because of their love for Apple's mobile phone, or will pay for Apple's "environmental protection".
Because of this, last year's net profit reached 94.68 billion US dollars, that is, 610.6 billion yuan, which is equivalent to about 1.6 billion yuan per day, which is the speed of making money, Andi bank of China's most profitable company, "Industrial and Commercial Bank of China", is willing to bow to the wind. In 2021, Cosmos Will once again win the "China's Most Profitable Enterprise", with a net profit of 348.3 billion yuan, a daily income of only 1 billion yuan, and only 62% of Apple's company. In the mobile phone industry, 90% of the profits are occupied by Apple, and the remaining thousands, mobile phones and mobile phone supply chain manufacturers, divide the remaining 10% of profits, showing Apple's terrifying earning power. Apple's achievements can be called the leader of global listed companies, compared with many domestic companies in the same industry, Apple's daily income can be compared to its annual income.
Apple is the most profitable smartphone manufacturer and the most greedy smartphone manufacturer. After the two more valuable accessories such as chargers and headphones have been cancelled, it is also planned to cancel accessories such as data cables and card pins, and paper instructions and warranty cards are also canceled. In the final analysis, Apple's cancellation of all accessories is still because of the blind obedience mentality of consumers, in this blind obedience mentality, many consumers even if they are squeezed, their feelings are not strong.
If Apple continues to try to cancel mobile phone accessories, fruit fans have always been indifferent to this overbearing approach, and even clapped their hands for the "science and technology environmental protection" rhetoric, then the time node for Apple to cancel all accessories will arrive faster than previously expected.
From the perspective of environmental protection, Apple is indeed environmentally friendly, because the results of Apple's environmental protection are also real. Apple in 2016, the iPhone 7 packaging box has begun to use renewable resources production, until all the subsequent iPhone series packaging boxes, all are using renewable energy, can reduce a large amount of greenhouse gas production every year. The iPhone 13 series uses renewable materials in the production, manufacturing and packaging processes. There is also a production data line, using TPE material, which is more expensive than PVC material, but because no plasticizer is added, and the feel is soft, it will not cause pollution to the body. Apple also has professional recycling robots, specializing in recycling metals on old equipment for reuse, as well as expensive Apple buildings, etc., all of which are used in green energy.
These iPhone production environmental protection, as a global technology company, and because the annual output of iPhones is huge, the impact is also huge, and it has indeed contributed to environmental protection.
However, these Apple companies to make contributions to environmental protection, but the use of consumer blind obedience, in a way to squeeze consumers, so that they not only won the reputation of "scientific and technological environmental protection", but also won a huge profit growth, the only injury may be the most loyal fruit fans of the iPhone, only they are paying for Apple's alternative environmental protection.